Diploma Lecture Series 2013 Revolution to Romanticism: European Art and Culture 1750-1850

Mechanical or organic life: John Ruskin’s theory of labour

Dr Peter Kohane

13/14 November, 2013

Lecture summary:

This presentation introduces John Ruskin’s ideas about society, labour and the imagination. These were particularly relevant to architecture. In specific terms, the ideology of progress through industrialization and divided labour was questioned in his writings and contribution to the making of buildings. The following aspects of Ruskin’s theory will be addressed:  an early esteem for Turner’s drawings and paintings, because they capture the inner essence of nature;  the realization that a similar vitality resides within the richly layered forms of Byzantine, Romanesque and Gothic buildings;  the belief that the skill and creative powers of builders and sculptors were expressed in medieval buildings. (Ruskin's notion of ‘grotesque’ ornament, for instance, is of importance today, where architectural production strives to reduce tolerances);  the significance of the imagination in the making of the adornments of architecture, especially as conveyed in his assessment of medieval and Renaissance sculptures on two different sides of the Ducal Palace;  The challenge to mid-nineteenth century architecture, which entered the actual process of construction through Ruskin’s influence on Benjamin Woodward, the designer of the Natural History Museum in Oxford (Deane and Woodward, 1856-60).  Architecture’s ethical role of cultivating the imagination. This involves contrasting the interiors of the Natural History Museum and the Crystal Palace (London, 1851). A person within the Museum appreciates the Gothic-inspired metal structure because its curved shape stimulates the mind to consider the beauty of natural forms. This mode of perception was denied to the beholder of the rectilinear forms of the Crystal Palace.

Slide list:

John Millais, Portrait of John Ruskin, 1853-4, Oil on canvas, Ashmolean Museum

J.M.W. Turner, Rain, Steam and Speed- the Great Western Railway, 1844, Oil on canvas, National Gallery, London

Ford Madox Brown, Work, Oil on canvas, 1852-65, 1881, Manchester Art Gallery

Deane and Woodward, Museum of Natural History, Oxford, 1856-60 (Photo from 1850s of the O’shea brothers at work)

John Ruskin, Images from The Seven Lamps of Architecture, London, 1849

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John Ruskin, Images from The Stones of Venice, 3 volumes, London, 1851-53

John Ruskin House, Brantwood, Coniston Water, (Now Ruskin Museum) Bedroom

Turner, Storm Clouds, Looking out to sea, 1845, Watercolour on paper, Tate Gallery, London

John Ruskin, Images from The Seven Lamps of Architecture, London, 1849

John Ruskin, Watercolour sketches prepared for The Stones of Venice, 3 volumes, London, 1851- 53, including views of St Mark’s Basilica, Venice, 11th-13th

Canalleto, Return of the Bucintoro to the Molo on Ascension Day, 1732, Oil on Canvas, Royal Collection, Windsor

* Ducal Palace, Venice, 1340 on.

* Ducal Palace, Venice, 1340 on, Medieval and Renaissance sculptures of Hope

Pisa Cathedral,1060-1350

John Ruskin, Series of sketches of towns and buildings, including two published in The Seven Lamps of Architecture, London, 1849

*Deane and Woodward, Museum of Natural History, Oxford, 1856-60 (Exterior and interior views, sketch of a capital by Woodward)

*Joseph Paxton, Crystal Palace, London, 1851

Reference:

Books or articles you have used in writing your lecture or that might be of interest to the audience.

J. Ruskin, 'The nature of Gothic', in C. Wilmer, ed., Unto this last and other writings by John Ruskin, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1985. (From Ruskin’s The Stones of Venice, vol. 2, London: Smith and Elder, 1853). (Please note that there are many publications of Ruskin’s The Stones of Venice. These will include the chapter titled ‘The Nature of Gothic’).

E. Blau, Ruskinian Gothic. The architecture of Deane and Woodward, 1845-1861, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982, ch. 3, 48-81, conclusion, 138-40.

Images:

Ducal Palace, Venice, 1340 on.

Ducal Palace, Venice, 1340 on. Medieval sculpture of Hope

Deane and Woodward, Museum of Natural History, Oxford, 1856-60

Deane and Woodward, Museum of Natural History, Oxford, 1856-60

Joseph Paxton, Crystal Palace, London, 1851